The present invention relates to swimming pools and, more particularly, to heated swimming pools having means for selectively converting a portion thereof into a hot tub.
Those concerned with the development of swimming pools have long recognized the advantages, particularly in terms of cost and convenience, of locating a hot tub in the general vicinity of a swimming pool. In many cases, the hot tub and swimming pool are contiguous, having a rigid, common wall over which water may easily spill from the hot tub into the pool. It is often the case that the common wall is also designed to permit the user to freely pass over the wall when moving between the pool and hot tub. In a typical layout, the hot tub and the pool share many of the system facilities, such as the pump, the filter, the heater, etc.
In the past, attempts have been made to reduce construction and maintenance costs of heated swimming pool systems by providing a system wherein more of the system components are commonly shared. The sharing of system components to reduce costs is an especially critical problem when it is necessary to install a new hot tub near to or as part of an existing swimming pool facility.
Prior art proposals directed at solving this problem may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,126,905 and 4,149,281. These patents shown systems wherein a hot tub is designed to float in an existing heated swimming pool. Although these prior art systems may have served the purpose, they are not entirely satisfactory for the reasons that considerable cost will be necessary for their manufacture, use and repair. For example, such floating hot tubs are usually constructed of a relatively large number of parts, making them difficult to assemble and susceptible to frequent damage. Additionally, these prior art systems are generally heavy and bulky, making them cumbersome for a single user to install, remove and use. In short, these systems are unduly complicated, expensive to manufacture, and difficult to employ.
For these and other reasons evident to those skilled in these arts, there has been a need for improved swimming pool-hot tub structures that effectively solves such problems as cost, weight, complexity, portability, and the like. The present invention fulfills this need.